Sometimes it pays to have a set-up man with 418 career saves. It certainly paid off for the Mets last night.

“When I came back this year, I knew it was to come in before Armando [Benitez],” Met reliever John Franco said last night after he struck out Preston Wilson with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of the Mets’ 5-2 win over the Marlins last night at Shea. “But that’s the kind of situation I still love.”

Sure, in the box score, Benitez notched his 18th save of the season. But that’s why those things are overrated.

Franco may well get a nice ceremony in Cooperstown because of his career save total, but last night he proved how worthless saves can be. And Bobby Valentine knew it.

“That was huge,” Valentine said of Franco’s performance. “John saved the game for us, no doubt about it.”

Indeed, Franco’s one-third of an inning was infinitely more critical than Benitez’ relatively worry-free ninth.

After Glendon Rusch tossed 7 2/3 excellent innings, Franco entered with runners on first and second.

“That’s nothing new for me,” Franco said of the pressure. “I’m glad we got out of it. I definitely knew what to do.”

He did get out of it, but not before putting the Franco stamp on the outing – making the Shea faithful sweat a little bit. Cliff Floyd sent a slow chopper to first and beat Franco to the base to load the bases.

“That was a tough play, but you have to regroup in a hurry,” Franco said. “I’ve done that plenty of times before.”

And he did it again. The hit brought up the dangerous Wilson. Franco got him swinging on a change-up, the only type of pitch he threw to Wilson.

“Preston is a good example of a young hitter,” Franco said. “He’s very aggressive and those types of hitters tend to miss more changeups.”

That’s just what Wilson did, sending up a roar from the 22,103 at Shea and also sending Franco off the mound as if he had just closed the game.

“That’s my best pitch,” Franco said of his changeup. “If he was going to beat me, it was going to be off my best pitch.”

And Wilson couldn’t get a bat on it.

“Preston is one of the most dangerous hitters in the league,” Valentine said of Mookie Wilson’s stepson, who has 16 homers and 57 RBIs. “With the bases loaded, [Franco] made some quality pitches there.”

Valentine knows whereof he speaks. Wilson smacked a grand slam against the Mets on May 6 and had two other four-RBI games against them this year alone.

“He’s killed us this year,” Franco said. “I knew that. I’m sure he did, too. That wasn’t going to happen again. If I gave up a hit, they would have been right back in it. A home run and they get the lead. I had my work cut out for me.”

But as he has innumerable times in the past, he escaped. That’s a nice luxury for Valentine to have.

“You have to have faith in him,” Rusch said. “When he goes out there like that, it’s like having another closer. Obviously, I would have liked to have finished the inning, but I didn’t mind giving the ball to him.”